Send me email updates about messages I've received
on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.By signing up, you certify that
you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

How do I get my seven year old daughter to sleep in her own room?

She has been sleeping with me her whole life.I've tried to break her but so far nothing has worked if I put her to bed in her room when I wake up shes at the foot of my bed asleep,sometimes she'll even fall asleep on the floor next to the bed after I go to sleep.She will try every trick in the book.I feel like I'm being driven slowly crazy by a seven year old. Thanks in advance for any tips.

You first sit her down and tell her, you sleep in your own bed now. I think she is old enough to under stand this. And when you find her in your room or bed, get up tell her you don't sleep in here any more you sleep in your room. Eventually she will git the drift and start not coming in your room at night

I had the same problem. We compromised and started alternating nights. She got to sleep with me for 2 nights then her room for 1, then every other night. We are both way happier and get way more rest. She kicks like a mule and would keep me from getting a good night sleep. I started off with telling her that I felt terrible all the time and I needed to start getting rest but couldn' t because she kept me up all night kicking me. She and I readied her room for her first night alone. We put a night light. She has a tv...at first i would let it stay on until she fell asleep and i would turn it off before I went to bed. (her bed time is 8:00 p.m. all year long...not just during school.) It took about 5 months before it was no longer an issue as to where she was sleeping. I rest and she goes to her room without complaint. My daughter will be 7 in April. Good luck.

I just got my sister's 7 year old daughter to sleep in her own bed.
I recently had to began staying with my sister and realized this girl still goes into her mom's room to sleep.
I find this behavior to be sickening to me.
What I did was told my neice if she gets out of her bed she will be in trouble in the morning. The first night I came in from work at midnight and low and behold she wasn't in her bed. I kindly walked in the room woke her up and put her back in her bed.
She stayed in there all night crying and ended up crying her self to sleep.
The next night she did the samething. I got her out again and this time she didn't cry her self to sleep she actually went right back to sleep.
The next night she was in her own bed when I got in the thouse. The next day after that she's was in her own bed.
So far she still sleeps in her own bed and this was 6 months agao.

Flat out tell her this is your bed you are big enough to sleep alone. The first time you find her in your room when you wake up warn her that if it happens again she will be punished and if it happens again follow through.

Yeah. We locked our door. I couldn't have ever thought I would, but I had three kids in my bed most mornings. They were getting too big.
It's great. If they really need us, they knock. We wake up. It's better. We are getting a lot more sleep.
You should try it! Locks are wonderful things.

I got an alarm for my sons window, he asks if it is on every night, He was 7 when we finally got him into his own room. We told him if he wanted his cousin to spend the night then he needed to be a big boy. At first I would lay with him until he fell asleep, then I would move in my room, he did come in during the night, but we started taking him back to his room. This world is crazey so except for there being absolutely no room in our bed, I actually perfered him to be in our room, I just felt calmer. But he and I both got used to it and it has done wonders for my husband and mine relationship, also I still let him come in on occation like if he is sick or on a school break, plus we told him he could get a fish. I hope this helps.

I have draw a chart for both my daughters and they get a praise and a heart/butterfly on their chart each time they will sleep on their bed through the whole night. I have promised them that if they collect 7 hearts/butterflies, than we will go to buy a coloring box that they really liked. I have found out that they a reward motivates them better than a punishment.

I don't see what's so SICKENING about it, as one poster put it.
My DD still sleeps w/me at 6yrs-old, but I'm not ready to kick her out yet..
The man that threatened to kill us both when she was just a few months old is still out there...THAT'S what is sickening to me.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 7:06 PM on Jan. 8, 2009

1-9 of 9 answers

Join CafeMom now to contribute your answer and become part of our community. It's free and takes just a minute.